Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 36 - Stella

“It all makes sense now Elena, he’s infected. He’s had it his whole life, and it’s grown as he has. It’s mutated, become a part of him. It’s completely different because he grew up with it,” Ethan says erratically, sending knives of fear crashing into my heart.

“What?! No, no that can’t be Ethan, please tell me it’s not true!” Elena says to her husband, tears cascading down her face at an alarming rate.

“Infection? What infection?” I ask, fearing the answer, but knowing it already.

“Please, not that...anything but that!”

“Stella, you’ve read everything about me, including the infection that I had while on the Zeus, take a wild guess,” Ethan answers, confirming my worst fears.

A powerful wave of emotions overcomes me and I can’t help but to let them flood my senses as tears pour freely from my eyes. My heart feels as though it’s been shattered as I glance over at Leon, the man I love.

Why him?

“What are we gonna do, Ethan?” Elena asks, a tone of desperation for her only son s well-being in her voice.

“Look, we know how to treat it, we just need to get the means. For now, we just have to keep him restrained and we need to focus on matters at hand. We need to give Dante some medical attention before re-animating him. This means that we can’t use the device on him until that’s done. We better get started right away, I don’t know how much time Leon has so let’s get to it,” Ethan says, looking over at his brother, Damien.

“Listen bro, we gotta get the hell out of space and fast. If we’re going to have any chance of helping Leon, you said it yourself, we need the means to do so. Well...I just happen to be married to those means,” Damien says, a look of pride on his face.

“Wait...Tanya? Elena asks sharply, glancing at her brother-in-law.

“Yup, she is a nurse after-all,” Damien replies, removing the last piece of his suit.

“Yeah, but how do we know that she’ll have all of the necessary tools and meds to properly treat the infection? Elena asks, looking uncertain.

“Standard training for nurses. After everything that went down on the Zeus, the government got scared that infected citizens would pass it to healthy citizens, thus causing an epidemic. They made it to where all nurses must know the proper way to not only administer the antidote, but also must know how to properly obtain the brain fluid to mix it themselves. Since the antidotes must use the carrier’s brain fluid, and only theirs, it was added as part of the curriculum. Although...she’s never actually made or administered one since her training,” Damien explains, looking thoughtful.

“But does she have the proper materials, Damien? I can’t lose him...” I say in a whisper, covering my tear-stained face in my hands as sobs wrack my body violently, causing me to shake.

“You bet, kiddo. She’s always got a full stock of meds, tools and materials in her lab in the basement. I wish I could give her some advance warning, but that doesn’t matter,” Damien replies, placing a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

Elena immediately rushes to my side, wrapping a motherly arm around my shoulder and running her hand gently over my hair as we both quietly cry.

Ethan approaches both of us, leaving the frozen-in-time form of Dante next to Anika, who is carefully running her fingers over his facial features.

“Listen to me, girls, Leon will be ok. We’ve made it too far to lose hope now! Look at what we’ve accomplished! I know it’s a scary thought, but Leon is a fighter through-and-through, have faith that he will pull through, and have faith in all of us to get through this together. We’re all a family here, and if you can’t count on family, then you can’t count on anyone,” Ethan says, enveloping us both into his strong arms, our faces buried into his shoulders.

You’re right, Ethan,” Elena says quietly, sitting up straight and wiping her eyes, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

“Never thought I’d hear you say that, love,” Ethan replies, cupping her face gently and kissing her.

The scene makes my heart ache even more, simultaneously kicking my resolve into overdrive.

I refuse to give up hope now. I won’t lose my heart, now that I’ve finally found it.

“So, what’s our game plan?” I ask, scrubbing at my eyes with the bottom of my shirt.

“First things first, we need to stabilize Dante so that we can re-animate him. After we re-animate him, we’ll need to transfer to the transport ship once we get close enough to Earth,” Ethan explains.

“What transport ship?” I ask, puzzled.

“Downstairs, there’s a small transport ship contained in the belly of this tub. It will allow us to enter the Earth’s atmosphere without being detected by radars. Once we’re on the transport ship, we can approach Earth relatively unseen,” Ethan says, already retrieving an enormous medical kit, the size of a large piece of luggage.

Elena immediately uproots herself from beside me, patting my knee gently. I nod in understanding, know that our first priority is getting Dante stabilized.

“Damien, what s our ETA for Earth?” Anika shouts to the cockpit of the ship from her position next to Dante.

“About two hours, is that enough time to get Dante in good enough shape to transfer to the transport ship?” Dante asks, after setting the ship on auto-pilot and returning to the back cabin.

“It should be, but we need to work fast, and we all need to pitch in. Rin’Gal, how’s it going over there? Ethan asks over his shoulder.

Rin’Gal is sitting directly in front of Leon, who is strapped in tightly to his seat to prevent him from harming himself or others.

“He seems to be sleeping, or unconscious. Don’t worry, there’s a pulse and it seems normal,” Rin Gal replies, Ethan’s gun propped against his enormous thigh.

Ethan simply nods and motions for us to join him around Dante’s body. Anika stands immediately behind his head, running her thin fingers through his dark brown hair, while Elena and I take his left side.

“First thing’s first, he has several broken bones that I can see just from looking, but we’re going to need to check internally. Stella, in that cabinet, there should be a portable X-Ray screen, can you get it for me please?” Elena asks.

I nod and rush across the room, retrieving the large, clear screen from the cabinet and bringing it back to her. She unfolds it, each of us taking a plastic outer edge of the body-sized, rectangular screen, and spreading it over top of Dante’s prone form. Elena nods to Anika, who then flips a minute switch at the top of the screen’s outer edge. It immediately blinks to life, the image shaky at first until it solidifies into a solid image of Dante s internal bones and organs.

“Hm, it’s a lot less severe than I thought it would be, which is great news for us. He’s got a fractured tibia, which will need to be set. Also, three of his fingers are broken and there seems to be a small fissure in his left collarbone,” Elena says, carefully eyeing the translucent screen.

“So, relatively simple repairs then?” I ask, looking over at her.

“Yes, although he will need some medication and a more advanced check-up once we get to Earth. Tanya will be able to help him, right Damien?”

“Of course, sis. She’s set up for just about anything,” he replies.

“Okay then, Anika, can you please get me the med kit? Damien and Stella, I need you two to hold up the X-Ray screen while I work on setting his bones. I need the exact location in order for it to set properly,” Elena says. I shift myself to the bottom of Dante’s exam table, at his feet, while Damien grips his edge of the screen from Anika’s former position at his head.

“Ethan,” Elena says softly, looking across the room at her husband, who is now seated next to Rin Gal, in front of Leon.

“Yeah, baby?” Ethan replies, in barely more than a whisper, placing his hand over Leon’s. My heart breaks all over again at the helpless expression on both Leon’s and Ethan’s faces.

“Why don’t you stay there, try to rest. We’ve got this,” Elena says, earning a grateful expression from Ethan as he sighs audibly.

Elena wipes a stray tear from her eye before turning to her medical kit, retrieving several tools and supplies. She looks up at me and gives me a silent half-smile, full of encouragement and hope.

I can’t imagine what she’s going through. As hard as it is for me to see the love of my life in such a horrible situation, it must be twice as hard for her to see her flesh-and-blood suffering so much.

Elena works diligently for close to an hour, setting bones and administering several liquid medications. Anika, who has been holding Dante’s head in an upright position, allowing the medicine to go down smoothly, sets his head back down gently on the exam table.

“Well, that’s as much as we can do for now,” Elena says, looking over the now-heavily bandaged body of Dante. Several casts adorn his leg, collarbone and fingers.

“As soon as we re-animate him, which we can do anytime now that he’s stable, his bones will automatically begin repairing themselves. Also, he’ll need CPR to start his breathing process the rest of the way,” Anika says, gently placing Dante’s bandaged hand in hers.

“Well...are we ready for this?” I ask calmly, though nervous butterflies are swarming my stomach.

“I’ve waited for this moment for years, I’m more ready than you’ll ever fathom,” Anika replies, wiping the tears from her eyes and standing tall.

“Uh, guys, we might have a problem,” Damien says, standing in front of the device s control panel.

“Oh no, what now?” Ethan says, standing up from his place next to Rin’Gal and making his way across the crowded room.

“I don’t know how we overlooked this before, but I can’t read the language used on the keypad. I know the correct sequence, from my documents, but without being able to translate it to English, it’s useless,” Damien says, running his fingers through his hair exasperatedly.

“I can help with that,” Rin Gal says, his voice deep and thick. “You see, this device was created by my kind. This was our reason for searching for it, to bring it back to its rightful place on Argalia. My Great-Grandfather invented this device, in the hopes of re-animating our fallen comrades.”

“Damien, can you sit with Leon, please? Rin Gal, I’ll need your help over here,” Ethan says, as Elena and Anika set up Dante’s table for the re-animation.

Two curved, long metal arms are unfolded from underneath of the table, curving in an arc overtop of Dante’s body, connecting at the top to form a halo of sorts. After the arc is firmly in place, Dante’s hands, feet and head are clasped into place with thin metal straps.

Rin’Gal approaches the control panel next to Ethan, nodding cordially as Damien hands him a slip of paper containing the proper key-sequence to initiate the re-animation process. Rin’Gal takes the paper and hands Damien the gun, and Damien crosses the room, seating himself in the unoccupied chair, facing Leon.

“I advise everyone to move to the outer perimeter of the room until the process is complete, it can be dangerous to get too close,” Rin’Gal says to us all. We move quickly to the doorway leading into the cockpit of the ship, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, peering curiously at Dante’s table.

Damien seats himself next to Leon along the back wall, shifting from his place in front of him to make more room.

“Now, after I key in the sequence, you might want to close your eyes for a few moments. There will be a bright white flash. It won’t hurt my eyes, but I’d imagine it could be blinding for a human,” Rin’Gal says, looking around the room and receiving understanding nods from us all.

“Thank you for the warning, Rin Gal. It’s much appreciated,” Anika says. Rin Gal simply nods and turns to Ethan.

“Are we ready to start the process?”

“Let’s do it,” Ethan replies, pressing himself flat against the wall and nodding to Rin Gal.

Rin’Gal places the slip of paper on the control panel, quickly starting the device and watching with a look of sheer pride on his face as his Great-Grandfather’s astonishing invention whirs to life.

A myriad of colors flash to-and-fro on the screen, signaling its start-up, and after a few minutes the screen flashes to solid blue.

“It is ready,” Rin’Gal says, looking around the room at us all. We cover our eyes with our hands, shutting them tightly as he keys in the proper sequence.

The heels of my hands are pressed firmly in place, and even through my hands I can see a bright flash, flesh-colored against my closed eyes.

“It is safe now, the process has begun,” Rin’Gal’s rough voice sounds.

We all uncover our eyes at the same time, staring in awe at Dante’s body.

“Is that...lightening? I ask, my voice barely more than a whisper.

“It’s electricity,” Ethan replies, staring in curious wonder at his best friend.

“Wow...” Damien says from across the room.

Tiny, thin bolts of white lightening cover every inch of Dante’s body, looking like electric spider webs crisscrossing in a continuous, moving pattern. Every few seconds, however, Dante’s body will blur, almost as if it’s a hologram.

“Why is it doing that?” I ask cautiously.

“That is simply his molecules, settling into their natural place. They have been dormant for so long that it will take a while for them to settle. About half-way through the process, that should stop,” Anika replies, answering my question with unshed tears sparkling in her eyes.

The metal halo surrounding the table then slowly starts to move, encircling Dante’s body as it travels from its position level with his navel, to the top of his head. Once it reaches his head, the halo tilts this way and that, slowly, before following its track back down his body and doing the same when it reaches his feet.

Suddenly, the spindly lightening changes from bright white to a soft blue, eventually glowing a deep sapphire.

“The process is almost complete, do not move your position until the device shuts itself down, only then it will be safe. You will need to administer CPR immediately after the device shuts down, Anika,” Rin’Gal informs us. Anika nods and readies herself to move as we all wait in nervous anticipation around the perimeter of the room.

The metal halo slows down gradually, finally coming to a stop and causing an audible gasp from all of us, as we hold our breath simultaneously.

The device’s screen blinks with color for a moment before it beeps, the screen going black as it shuts down.

“Now, Anika!” Ethan urges, but she’s already there, pinching the bridge of Dante’s nose as Elena gently slips her hands under his head and lifting it slightly, to better open his airways.

Once his head is in position, mere seconds later, she begins the breathing process for him, puffing air into his trachea from her own lungs.

“One, two, three...” she whispers, counting out the chest pumps she’s performing before quickly placing her mouth to his once again.

The CPR goes on for several torturous minutes, as tears stream down everyone’s eyes, quickly losing hope.

Suddenly, a loud gasp sounds from Dante’s mouth and Anika’s eyes widen, her hand slapping over her mouth in shock.